Evaluation of high throughput screening methods in picking up differences between cultivars of lignocellulosic biomass for ethanol production

• Published in: Biomass & bioenergy 2014-07, Vol.66 (July 2014), p.261-267
• Main Authors: Lindedam, Jane, Bruun, Sander, Jørgensen, Henning, Decker, Stephen R., Turner, Geoffrey B., DeMartini, Jaclyn D., Wyman, Charles E., Felby, Claus
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 09 BIOMASS FUELS; BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; Bioenergy; Biological and medical sciences; Chemical and Biosciences; Food industries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genetic selection; High throughput screening; INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; Lignocellulosic ethanol; Microscale pretreatment; Triticum aestivum; Use and upgrading of agricultural and food by-products. Biotechnology; Wheat straw
• ISSN: 0961-9534; 1873-2909
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biombioe.2014.03.006

We present a unique evaluation of three advanced high throughput pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis systems (HTPH-systems) for screening of lignocellulosic biomass for enzymatic saccharification. Straw from 20 cultivars of winter wheat from two sites in Denmark was hydrothermally pretreated and enzymatically processed in each of the separately engineered HTPH-systems at 1) University of California, Riverside, 2) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Colorado, and 3) University of Copenhagen (CPH). All three systems were able to detect significant differences between the cultivars in the release of fermentable sugars, with average cellulose conversions of 57%, 64%, and 71% from Riverside, NREL and CPH, respectively. The best correlation of glucose yields was found between the Riverside and NREL systems (R2 = 0.2139), and the best correlation for xylose yields was found between Riverside and CPH (R2 = 0.4269). All three systems identified Flair as the highest yielding cultivar and Dinosor, Glasgow, and Robigus as low yielding cultivars. Despite different conditions in the three HTPH-systems, the approach of microscale screening for phenotypically less recalcitrant feedstock seems sufficiently robust to be used as a generic analytical platform. •Unique evaluation of 3 microscale systems for lignocellulosic biomass screening.•20 wheat straw cultivars were pretreated and enzymatically digested in each system.•All systems detected significant differences between cultivars.•Average cellulose conversions were 57%, 64%, and 71% from systems respectively.•Screening for phenotypically less recalcitrant feedstock is independent of systems.